Virtual Medicine Conference

About the Course Director

Brennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS, is Director of Health Services Research for Cedars-Sinai Health System. He directs the Cedars-Sinai Center for Outcomes Research and Education (CS-CORE), a multidisciplinary team that investigates how digital health technologies – including wearable biosensors, smartphone applications, and virtual reality – can strengthen the patient-doctor bond, improve outcomes and save money. Dr. Spiegel has published numerous best-selling medical textbooks, editorials and more than 170 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is listed in the Onalytica "Top 100 Influencer" lists for digital health (No. 13) and virtual reality (No. 14). His team's digital health research has been featured by major media outlets, including Bloomberg, the Boston Herald, Forbes, Huffington Post, LA Times, Mashable, NBC News, NPR, PBS, and Reuters. His virtual reality research won the 2017 “Webby Award” for best technology on the internet.

Good morning.  Today's post is a live stream from Cedar's Sinai Medical Center. It is in a virtual reality setting sponsored by Samsung VR.  If you have a headset put it on.  If not you can still see the VR stream live and look throughout the conference room.

Not so far in the future, doctors might prescribe a virtual beach vacation to calm aches and pains, in lieu of taking a pill. Insurance companies might offer scenic tours of Icelandic fjords to lower blood pressure, instead of doubling up on drugs. Psychiatrists might treat social phobia by immersing patients in a virtual dinner party.

It’s starting to happen right now because of virtual reality – the mind-bending technology that offers immersive, multisensory environments that nudge our brains into thinking we are somewhere else.

Virtual Medicine is a two day symposium that convenes the brightest minds in therapeutic VR. Attendees learn from case studies, didactic lectures, patient vignettes, and VR demos.

Virtual Reality is beginning to impact treatment protocols. There are many clinical studies in progress.

Today's presentation Virtual Medicine Conference an excellent presentation focused mostly on behavioral health and presented as a new medium for treating pain, anxiety, depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders. Other possible uses are for phobias, PTSD, Addiction, Acute anxiety disorder, and others.

Virtual Reality in Medical Education

The use of VR in Surgery for teaching and patient education

VR taken individually offers a breakthrough for all these applications.  When coupled with artificial intelligence and bots (automatic chats) for questions and answers it offers an exponential gain in treatment for remote diagnosis and conversation with patients.